


Love Comes in Many Forms

by dnai



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: M/M, Reid in love, different kinds of love, short and sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-07 08:54:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13431273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dnai/pseuds/dnai
Summary: Reid had felt love plenty of times.But he'd only been in love once.





	Love Comes in Many Forms

**Author's Note:**

  * For [butteryholyangel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/butteryholyangel/gifts).



> This is a short fic I wrote over my winter break. The prompt was "Write about a character realizing they're in love".   
> Hope you enjoy!

Spencer Reid had never been in love.

There was attraction, which he was familiar enough with, even if he wasn’t familiar with pursuing it. There was platonic love, familial love. He was more than passingly familiar with these. The team was his family, and as long as he’d tried denying it, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

He loved JJ. They were friends, and closer in age than a lot of the other team members. They’d been family almost since Reid had joined the team. They looked out for each other, and thankfully, JJ had never brought up the football game as anything other than platonic.

He loved Morgan, he loved Garcia. He loved listening to their banter on the rare occasions he got the chance; it reminded him that his team members were real people who needed an outlet for their stress, just like he was. For all the jokes his team made about him being a robot or a computer, he was the one that didn’t understand how they could systematically deal with all the horror the team saw on a daily basis. He loved the way they showed their concern for the other team members (Admittedly, Garcia was much more open than Morgan was). It was obvious that they cared. 

He loved Emily. As angry as he’d been when he found Emily had faked her death, he was a million times more relieved. Because she was alive. She was back with the team, and now, finally, she was safe from the demons that had plagued her for years and eventually driven her into hiding. 

Rossi, for his part, was content to sit back and be the sometimes snarky but always constant voice of reason for the team. He knew as well as anyone what the job could do to someone, and he was the most likely to get through when someone was struggling. When Reid thought about the contrast between Rossi and Gideon, it made him miss Gideon a little bit less. He’d always see Gideon as a father figure, but that didn’t change the fact that Rossi had a better way of handling things. Gideon was brilliant, there was no doubt about that, but Rossi had a way of dealing with hurting agents in a way that Gideon had never figured out. Reid loved them both, but Rossi was the one the team needed. 

And then there was Hotch. Their ever-present Unit Chief, who didn’t seem fazed by the things they dealt with every day, who seemed distant in his concern. Who Reid couldn’t imagine their team without. Who Reid automatically felt safer around. Who could be trusted to understand. And… 

Spencer Reid was no stranger to love, but he had only been in love once. 


End file.
